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The New York Times ran an article about the taxing job of “hostess” at the much loved Tour de France. Apparently young women, mostly from Europe, work 12+ hour days, serving drinks and snacks, sharing crowded living quarters, and are continuously forced to smile, even when tired. (Sounds like the Tour directors and the truck drivers who pass through my neighborhood have something in common.)

So I get that many beauty pageants in the U.S. are associated with scholarships, and therefore, can be seen as a gateway, albeit a objectifying one, to educational opportunities. But this? Apparently the big winner gets…drum roll please…”The plum assignment is to award the jerseys to the top riders in Paris, where the stage is set on the Champs-Élysées. Pictures from that ceremony are seen worldwide.”

And? That’s it?

Sorry, but you’d have to give me way more incentive than that to put up with 12+ hour days and being told to smile even when I’m exhausted and in need of some alone time. The Tour director Christian Prudhomme freely admits that “the podium girls are accessories to the athletes.” The insult doesn’t stop there, however. The Times reports:

Prudhomme chose a woman, Claire Pedrono, a cycling champion of the Brittany region in France, for a prestigious job at this Tour: holding up the race blackboard that tells the cyclists time information, such as how far they are ahead of the pack behind them. She rides the course on the back of a motorcycle.

“I felt like she deserved that honor because of her accomplishments as a cyclist,” Prudhomme said. “But I have to be honest with you, it also doesn’t hurt that she has a nice smile.”

And that’s how Claire Pedrono, one of the best cyclists in the world, became Vanna White.

Last week, the United States’ men’s soccer team lost 2-1 in a World Cup Qualifier to Trinidad and Tobago, the only team below them in the group standings, sending them crashing out of the Men’s World Cup for the first time since 1986 in what some are calling “the worst loss in the history of U.S. Men’s Soccer.” It seems a good a time as any to remember that it was only in April this year that the U.S. women’s too, lost an important fight: the battle to gain equal pay with the men’s team. And it also seems a good time to remember that while the U.S. men comically crashed out of the World Cup, the ...

Last week, the United States’ men’s soccer team lost 2-1 in a World Cup Qualifier to Trinidad and Tobago, the only team below them in the group standings, sending them crashing out of the Men’s World Cup for ...

“When the Horst Wessel Song was sung, as a democrat of long standing I naturally did not raise my arm. The woman was standing next to me. She sang along with gusto and raised her hand high. She was the one who reported me. I then had to go and explain myself to District Administrator Rothmund. And he said to me, ‘What did you do?’ I said, ‘I didn’t do anything at all.’ Then he said, ‘That’s just it! Times have changed. You have to raise your hand now.’”

The celebration of bodies—specifically of women’s bodies—in the Olympics, has not necessarily been progressive or benign.

Throughout this year’s Olympic Games, we have seen media coverage—from short plugs to robust interactives—that claims to celebrate “diverse bodies.” Many of these pieces, sometimes unwittingly, put aesthetics first in a competition that is primarily about performance. And even if the aesthetics in question aren’t themselves normative—brawny woman swimmers, round shot-putters, top-heavy weightlifters—journalists and commentators often uphold the status quo in the way they celebrate them.

In the essay “Seeing What My Muscles Can Do,” New York Times Magazine contributing writerElizabeth Weil discusses her difficulties in accepting the way her body packs on muscle. Ultimately, she is encouraged by the brawn of Olympic ...

The celebration of bodies—specifically of women’s bodies—in the Olympics, has not necessarily been progressive or benign.

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